Painless
by Mercuria
Summary: You know the poison argument, right? Here's my twist. PG-13 for blood and death.
1. Painless

Mercuria: Okay, this is a poem based on what I like to call the Poison Theory of Religion. The Poison Theory as I know it goes like this:  
There's a man who's about to drink a glass of poison. Naturally, you want to save him. However, potential do-gooder, this man is stubborn. He does not believe that his beverage is poisoned. He may even believe that it's good for his health. So what do you do? Wouldn't you knock it out of his hands?  
  
Here's my twist on this theory:  
You see a woman holding a knife to her throat, and she seems quite intent on killing herself. You try to talk her out of it, but she is completely convinced that this world has nothing to offer her. If you save her, she promises to hate you forever. So do you force her to drop the knife? Do you?  
************  
Knife  
And a trickle of blood  
down her neck  
drip drip drip  
and the thirsty metal  
tasting more  
But you can't let her  
  
Stop  
So she's never had her rose garden  
no reason to despair  
Shred her delusion  
of suicide sirens  
for life's what she needs  
and love's what she'll get  
the violence deceives  
Knife still there  
Tell her tell her ...  
  
Stubborn  
So she won't hear sense  
that's no matter  
You could save her and be a hero, no?  
It's for her own good  
She'll thank you later  
She'll love you later  
so hurt her now  
Emotional scarring is so insubstantial  
compared to the trail of blood   
she wants to wrap around her neck  
  
Stranger  
That's how she feels  
an orphan of some other clan  
ribbon like chains to the bedpost  
water like blood to an estranged tongue  
She'll find her peace in the grave  
or so she says  
Peace of mind  
or a piece of your mind?  
The choice is yours  
  
Broken  
That's the knife on the floor  
and her fists beating against your chest  
"Why?!"  
Shattered death-dream   
like the shards of metal  
And as the bile rises in your throat  
you pull the struggling girl close  
fingers fumbling for the discarded weapon  
Grasping the hilt with jagged edges  
you whisper  
"I was wrong  
I'm sorry"  
  
The death is quick and painless  
She knew that all along  
Did you?  
  
*****************  
Mercuria: Hm, I'm so dark and morbid ... um, reviews make me happy. Criticize the theology if you will, but bear in mind that all I did was tweak the Poison argument. 


	2. No Lemonade For You

Mercuria: This is a bit of an epilogue to the poem "Painless". To all you people who couldn't understand my poem after I took it apart and explained every single image in my A/N on my reviews page ... I dedicate this to you. I even used little words so you'd be sure to understand.  
***********  
  
Saki poured herself a glass of lemonade and sighed happily. It was turning out to be a really good day. She had a free afternoon, her little brother was at his friend's house, and that evening she was going out to dinner with her very best friends in the world. Yes, life was good.  
"Saki, NOOOOOOOO!"  
Oh. Oh dear.  
Her neighbor Juan was dashing across the lawn, waving his hands over his head frantically. What on earth was going on?  
"Saki!" he cried once he had reached her porch. "Don't drink it!"  
Saki blinked.  
"That lemonade is POISONED!" Juan shrieked.  
Saki felt she had no choice but to blink again.  
"What?" she said irritably.  
"It's true! Don't drink it or you'll DIE!"  
Juan looked very upset about this, but Saki was not in a sympathetic mood.  
"Juan, I'm pretty sure that there's no poison in my lemonade, I made it myself!"  
Juan's eyes narrowed.  
"How do you know that what you put in there was real lemons?" he said suspiciously.  
Saki rolled her eyes.  
"Quit being ridiculous," she said. "Why don't you go away and let me drink my lemonade in peace?"  
Saki made as if to raise the glass to her lips, but Juan shrieked and batted it out of her hands. It landed in the grass, where the spilled lemonade began to seep into the ground.  
"Okay, THAT'S enough," Saki snapped. "I KNOW this is lemonade. I'll prove it to you!"  
Juan crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.  
"Just let me get the pH strips left over from my science project!" Saki said, running inside. A few minutes later, she returned with several thin strips of paper and a chart.   
"What's that?" Juan asked skeptically.  
"This," Saki said, holding up one of the pieces of paper, "is a pH strip. It tests the acidity or alkalinity of substances. Watch this ..."  
Saki dipped the paper into a new glass of lemonade.   
"See?" she said. "The colors change depending on the thing being tested."  
She showed Juan her chart. Under a drawing of a lemon was another pH strip.   
"Look," Saki said. "The colors match exactly. EXACTLY. That means that I used real lemons to make my lemonade."  
There was a long pause.  
"But the SUGAR!" Juan howled. "Something must be wrong with the sugar!"  
"Grrr ... I just PROVED something to you!" Saki snapped. "Give it up!"  
"No! If I do that, you'll-"  
"Yeah, I know, I'll DIE! Just get lost, okay? This is REALLY not funny!"  
"B-but Saki ..."  
And so, due to the persistent whining and wailing of Juan, Saki sent her lemonade to undergo a chemical analysis.  
Four weeks later, she received a letter from the laboratory, informing her that yes, her lemonade was one hundred percent drinkable. She brought these findings to Juan. To her dismay, he was less than impressed,  
"Oh, Saki," he said, shaking his head sadly.  
"Whaddaya mean, Oh Saki?" Saki growled.  
Juan continued to shake his head.  
"Don't you SEE?" he said. "This letter has obviously been forged!"  
Saki closed her eyes, mentally counted to ten, mentally said "screw that", and proceeded to yell at her neighbor.  
"WHAT ... IS ... YOUR ... DEAL?! WHAT HAVE YOU GOT AGAINST MY LEMONADE, ANYWAY?!"  
Juan looked hurt.  
"I've only been trying to save your life," he protested.  
"You've made my life a living HELL!" Saki shot back. "You know what I'm gonna do? I'm going to go home, lock my doors and windows, make ANOTHER pitcher of lemonade, and drink it ALL."  
Juan looked stricken.  
"No, wait!" he called after Saki as she ran across the street. "At least consider trying my iced tea instead!"  
**************  
You can be ruled by logic, or you can stubbornly refuse to accept that logic exists. We prefer a happy medium.  
************  
Mercuria: The end! 


End file.
